Vending-machine.



W. H. LARAWAY.

VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 20, 1909.

Patented Nov. 23, 1909 1+ J 7 \&

UNTTED STATES PATEN T FFTQE.

\VILLIAM "H. LABAWAY, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN.

VENDING-MACHINE.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, lVILLiAM H. LARA- war, a citizen of the United States, residing at Grand Rapids, in the county of Kent and E State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Vending-Machine, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to improve ments in vending machines and is designed to provide a simple means responsive to a proper inserted coin for the vending of small articles such as vials and other articles of like character.

In accordance with the present invention the articles are arranged in vertical series with the lowermost one of each series resting on a holder adapted to be turned on a longitudinal axis in a manner to discharge the article from the machine and on its return to normal position to receive the next article in order. This article discharge device is under the control of a manually operable member adapted to be connected to the discharge mechanism through the action of a coin which throws a connecting mechanism be tween the discharge device and the manually operable member into operative relation to the latter and as soon as the coin has performed its function it is automatically discharged from its operative position into a suitable receptacle and on the return of the manually operable member the connecting device responsive to the inserted coin is returned to the inoperative position so that a second manipulation of the manually operable member is without efiect, to deliver an article.

The invention will be best understood from a consideration of the following detail description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which drawings,

Figure 1 is a front elevation with parts broken away of a portion of the machine embodying the present invention. Fig. 2 is a section on the line AB of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a portion of the coin-controlled mechanism.

Referring to the drawings there is shown a casing 1 comprising a suitable base 2, side members 3 and a top 4 with a back partition 5 and a front partition 6. The back partition 5 may be of wood or metal or may even be of glass and by preference the front partition 6 is made of glass so that the contents of the machine may be visible to a customer.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 20, 1909.

Patented Nov. 23, 1909. Serial No. 421,020.

The lower portion of the casing is expanded toward the front and is closed in by a solid partition 7 in which may be located a suitable receptacle 8 for the coins used for the actuation of the machine after they have passed through the coin operated portion of the machine.

Extending through the machine from side to side is a bar 9 fixed to the sides 3 of the machine and rising from this bar and extending to the top 4 are strips 10 having front and rear members 11. The strips 10 are spaced apart a sufl icient distance to receive the articles to be vended, the ends of the articles being confined to the strips by the members 11. Access to the interior of the machine for the purpose of renewing the supply of articles to be vended may be had either through the back 5 or the front 6, either member being made removable as may be desired and any of the usual locking means being employed for preventing access to the machine except by authorized persons.

Hinged to the bar 9 between each pair of strips 10 and between the sides 3 and the adjacent strips 10 are trough-shaped holders 12 designed to receive and hold the lowermost article of the series of articles confined between the strips 10. Each of these trough-shaped holders 12 is mounted on a rod 13 fast in the respective strip 10 or side member 3 as the case may be and each holder 12 is provided with downturned ears 1% at the ends mounted on the rod 13 so that the rod constitutes a pivot support for the particular holder 12. A spring 15 on the rod 13 engages at its opposite ends the holder 12 and the bar 9 respectively and tends normally to maintain the holder 12 in the proper position to receive and retain the lowermost of the series of articles, a few of which are indicated at 16 in Fig. 2, the stiffness of the spring 15 being such as to maintain the holder in a position to prevent the accidental escape of any of the articles 16.

Secured to the front partition 7 and extending therefrom to the bar 9 is a cover 17 for the compartment containing the money receptacle 8. This cover 17 contains as many slots 18 as there are series of articles 16 provided for in the machine, these slots being located about midway of the width of the spaces between the uprights l0 and between these uprights and the ends 3 of the casing. The cover 17 slopes toward the front of the machine and is designed to receive an article 16 when dlscharged and the -slope of the cover 17 is such that the article will readily gravitate to a point within reach of the customer.

Beneath the bar 9 there is hinged another bar 19, this bar being hinged or pivoted at one edge near the rear of the casing while its front edge projects sufficiently toward the front of the casing to underlie the slots 18 in the cover 17. This bar 19 is provided at its front edge with slots or recesses 20 for the passage of a coin introduced through the respective slot 18, the recess 20 underlying a corresponding slot 18. The bar 19 has secured thereto a manipulating handle or lever 21 projecting through a slot 22 in the front member 7 of the casing and exterior thereto is provided with a finger piece 28 whereby a customer may depress the lever or handle 21 and so move the bar 19 on its pivot. A suitable spring 21- made fast at one end to the bar 19 and at the other end to a fixed portion of the structure, say one of the strips 10 or the bar 9 as the case may be, tends to maintain the bar 19 in the elevated position and when this bar is moved by proper manipulation of the lever 21 it is against the normal tendency of the spring 24, so that when pressure is relieved from the lever 21 the spring 24: will return the bar 19 to its normal position with the manipulating end 23 of the lever 21 elevated.

Depending from each trough 12 is a rod 25 pivotally connected at its upper end to an ear 26 formed about midway of the length of the trough 12 while the lower end of the rod 25 is bent toward the rear of the machine as indicated at 27 and may be, for the purposes of strengthening this portion of the rod returned on itself as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The rod 25 is passed through the cover 17 by way of the rear end of a respective slot 18 and also normally passes through the recess 20 underlying the particular slot 18.

It will be understood that there is a holder 12 for each series of articles 16 and there is a corresponding coin slot 18 for each holder 12 and it is through these coin slots that the several rods 25 extend, there being a rod 25 for each holder 12.

Immediately beneath each coin slot there is a narrow metal loop 28 of sufficient width to receive a coin on edge. This loop 28 is intermediate of .the coin slot 18 and a corresponding recess 20 in the bar 19, and each rod 25 extends through a corresponding loop 28. The front edge of the loop, which loop is carried by the bar 9. is slightly inclined as indicated at 29, the inclination being slightly downward toward the bar 9.

A light spring 30 is carried by the bar 9 behind each rod 25 and tends to maintain the same in an advance posit-ion so that the rearwardly turned or curved portion 27 does not reach quite to the rear edge of the recess 20 in the bar 19.

In the normal condition of the machine each holder 12 is maintained in a position where its front and rear edges are in substantially a horizontal plane by the spring 15 and articles 16 are thereby maintained within the spaces between the guide bars 10.

If now a coin such as indicated in dotted lines at 81 in Fig. 2 be introduced through a coin slot 18 it will fall into the loop 29 and if it be of the proper size will be forced by the inclined end Wall 29 of the loop 28 against the corresponding rod 25 and will force the same rearwardly against the action of the spring 30 which spring is made light to yield to the action of the coin. This will bring the rearwardly turned end of the rod 25 beneath the bar 19 at the rear end of the corresponding recess 2O. Now on depressing the lever 21 the bar 19 will engage the rearwardly turned end 27 0f the rod 25 and draw the same downward thus tilting or rocking the holder 12 against the action of the spring 15 and the lower one of the series of articles 16 will roll off the holder 12 and fall on the cover 17 and, because of the inclination of the said cover 17, the article will gravitate to the front of said cover where its movement may be arrested by a longitudinal bead 32 provided for this purpose, the glass front 6 terminating at a suflicient distance above the cover 17 to permit the escape of an article from a carrier 12. As the rod 25 is moved downward by the action of the bar 19 the end of the rod attached to the carrier 12 approaches the spring 30 so that the action of the said spring becomes less and less and by the time the rod has reached the lowermost position and an article 16 has been discharged the coin 30 both by its weight and the rolling action imparted by the friction of the rod 25 causes a compression of the spring 30 to so much greater an extent than the original movement of this spring under the action of the coin that the latter is enabled to escape by the front end 29 of the loop 28 and falls into the receptacle 8, the recess 20 offering no resistance to this movement of the coin. As soon as this occurs the rod 25 is released from the compressive action of the coin 31 against the spring 30 and when the lever 21 is released and the bar 19 is returned to its initial position the spring 30 forces the rod 25 toward the front of the machine until the rearwardly turned end 27 is again free from engagement with the rear wall of the slot 20 and another movement of the lever 21 to cause the bar 19 to turn about its pivot against the action of the spring 2 1 becomes inactive to the rod 25 and no more articles 16 are discharged from the machine until another proper coin is introduced. Furthermore, the spring 15 acting on the holder 12 tends to return the latter to its normal position in which position the next article 16 in order drops into it and the rod 25 participates in the return movement and is brought thereby into position to be again acted upon by another coin 31 properly introduced into the machine. Smaller coins than the proper coin will not operate the machine but will fall inertly through the loop 28 and into the coin receptacle 8.

lVhat is claimed is 1. In a vending machine, an article delivery means, a coin receiving member, a rod carried by the article delivery means and extending through the coin receiving member in the path of a coin, and normally constrained in a direction to be engaged by the edge of a coin when the latter is in the coin receiving member and is engaging the said member by a part of its edge remote from that engaging the rod, and an actuating member in the path of which the rod is moved against its normal tendency by an inserted coin.

2. In a vending machine, an article delivery means, a coin receiving member, another member above the coin receiving member and provided with a coin slot in alinement with the coin receiving member, an other member pivotally carried below the coin receiving member and provided with a slot or recess for the passage of a coin, a pendent rod carried by the article delivery means and extending through the coin slot, the coin receiving member, and the recess in the pivoted member below the coin receiving member, said rod having the lower end bent away from the path of a coin entering through the coin slot, and means for constraining the rod to a position in the path of an inserted coin and out of the path of the pivoted member below the coin receiving member.

3. I11 a vending machine, an article delivery means, a member provided with a coin receiving slot, a. looped member below the coin receiving slot and having one end in clined, a pivoted member below the looped member and having a recess or passage for a coin therethrough, a pendent rod carried by the article delivery means and having its lower end bent in a direction away from the inclined portion of the looped member, and a spring tending to move the rod into the path of the coin introduced through the coin slot.

4. In a vending machine, an article delivery means spring constrained to normal position, a pendent rod carried by said article delivery means and held in normal position thereby, said rod having the lower end bent to one side, a member provided with coin receiving slots through which slots the rod extends, a looped coin receiving member below the coin-receiving slot and having one end inclined downward toward the rod, a slotted member through which the rod extends, and into engagement with which the rod is adapted to be moved by an inserted coin, and a spring tending to move the rod in a direction toward the inclined wall of the coin receiving member and to hold the lower end of the rod out of the path of the pivoted member.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM H. LARA'WAY. itnesses B. F. ORsER, JOHN MORAN. 

